Court told Fortrend stockbroker ‘distracted’ by dispute, blockchain, Hollywood script

Fortrend broker Joe Forster’s ‘acrimonious’ family dispute and his work on a script to pitch to Hollywood left him distracted from running his business, the Federal Court has heard.

Joe Forster outside the Federal Court in Melbourne. Picture: NCA Newswire / Nicki Connolly

Melbourne broker Joe Forster has been embroiled in an “acrimonious” family dispute and created a movie script to pitch to Hollywood, leaving him distracted from running his business, the Federal Court has heard.

Mr Forster lodged court action against two former Fortrend Securities employees, Christopher Wollermann and Stephen Lyle, in 2022, alleging they poached up to 43 clients and stole confidential information when they joined rival Shaw and Partners in the same year.

The two men have now fired back against their former boss in court to claim he was not “interested” in running the business and they effectively took over operations, their barrister Philip Crutchfield KC told the court in Melbourne on day one of the trial.

“(In) about 2015, so some three years after Mr Lyle has commenced and six after Wollermann commenced, Mr Forster switched off in his interest with the business. He was not dealing with the clients,” Mr Crutchfield said.

“Mr Forster (has been) going through a longstanding and acrimonious family dispute.

“What our gentlemen say is that from about 2015 they were running this business, in effect. They were the ones introducing new clients.”

In about 2014, Mr Forster also started “spending much of his time” on a blockchain business, and wrote a screenplay which he pitched to Hollywood studios, the court heard.

He also lived in the US on and off from 2014 and returned to Australia permanently in 2017, when he lived out of the Fortrend Securities office for a time, Mr Crutchfield said.

Mr Lyle and Mr Wollermann argued they memorised “vast” amounts of client information, including titles and professions. It was alleged they checked a list of Fortrend’s most significant clients, which were ranked by asset value but they said they did not download it.

Earlier, the parties had a dispute over a list Mr Lyle and Mr Wollermann allegedly had access to that contained client information.

Mr Forster’s barrister, Michael Wyles KC, said it was a “critical document” in the case and alleged it had been destroyed.

And given that, Mr Wyles said there was no way to know if the information was confidential and filed a last minute application on Sunday night asking for elements of Mr Lyle and Mr Wollermann’s defence to be struck out.

Mr Crutchfield said it conceded that his clients breached their contract in relation to accessing StoneX — a digital platform for the trading of commodities, derivatives and securities — after Mr Wollermann used it to “to cross check what was in his head”.

“These two stock brokers had in their heads … the information they needed,” Mr Crutchfield said.

The court heard Mr Forster allegedly accessed Mr Lyle and Mr Wollermann’s computers with their passwords and that the company did not have sufficient IT support.

Mr Crutchfield also told the court Mr Forster emailed some of the firm’s clients after his former employees resigned and told them Mr Lyle had a “mental breakdown”.

The trial continues.